Edge magazine believes Freedom Inc is a smart way to work

Get smart

by Robert Munro

JANUARY, 2011

In today’s challenging marketplace, companies must compete effectively while battling with diminished resources and recruitment freezes. Motivating the existing workforce has become a priority, and many organisations are turning to a revolutionary concept, called smart working, to up engagement levels.

Its underlying philosophy is summed up by Brian Carney and Isaac Getz in their book, Freedom., Inc. They point out that the freedom to make our own decisions is taken for granted in out personal lives but the same is rarely true at our place of work. The fundamental tenet of smart working, say Carney and Getz, is removiitg obstacles to spontaneity, innovation and reactivity.

“Can you afford to continue stifling the vast majority of your people instead of giving them a chance to help your business?” they ask.

“Most companies are dumb,” says Getz, who is also professor of organisational behaviour at ESCP Europe Business School. “The reason people leave is not because of the money but because their desire for intrinsic equality and personal growth are not met. They are treated as second-class citizens who have to comply. If you try to better yourself, you are told, ‘That is not for you.’ Human beings have fundamental needs.”